I Don't Want No Scrubs

I’ve been on this real kick lately of listening to covers. “Titanium” is my new favorite. I love the original, but Pandora introduced me to this slowed down version that I’ve pretty much had on repeat for the last week. Belting out “you shoot me down, but I don’t fall” over and over again is really therapeutic, you ought to try it. Brent sure seems to love it.

Anywho, I’m on the train today and I’m more than a little annoyed with the girl next to me who is apparently unaware that it’s the middle of winter and the unspoken rule is to keep a tissue on you at all times. She broke this cardinal rule and is sniffle central station. I’m reading my book and pretending not to be hella irritated when she does something that’s a little more startling. In lieu of a tissue, she uses her hand; fine w/ me, it stops the sniffling and it’s not my hand she’s snotting up. She then proceeds to wipe her hand on her pants…which I notice are bright blue. Because they are scrubs. This chick is wiping her gross running nose on her pants on her way into work, in a hospital or doctor’s office. That seems about right.

I notice them all the time, the folks on my morning and afternoon commute dressed in their funky printed scrubs, or the more traditional blues and greens. There are plenty of hospitals and medical schools on our line, so taking the train into work is a logical move, no? What’s not so logical, at least to me, is wearing your scrubs on the commute in. It just seems a little contradictory, wearing a pair of pants on public transportation, that you’re then going to be wearing into the waiting room, by the nurse’s station, maybe even into an operating room. 

I get it, scrubs looks pretty damn comfortable. But doesn’t wearing a pair of pants on the bus or the train, where you come in contact with loads of different people -some w/ very questionable personal hygiene habits and /or coming down w/ the latest seasonal illness- seem a little questionable when you’re headed into a an environment filled with compromised immune systems? Especially at this time of year, when practically everyone on the train is sniffling or coughing or sweating it out all over their game of Candy Crush. 

My checked pants are probably the most comfortable pants I own, outside of my pajamas. But I refuse to wear them to work. I wouldn’t even wear them to school; whenever I saw kids after class getting on the train w/out changing out of their kitchen clothes I would always curl up my lip in disapproving judgment. It grossed me out to think I was sitting in a seat w/ who knows what germs, getting coughed and rubbed up on, and then wearing those pants into the kitchen to make food to serve the public. It just seems irresponsible and unhygienic. Kind of like wearing your scrubs on the train and then tending to a sick patient. 

Of course, the woman who I encountered this morning sans tissue could have been on her way home from work. Too tired after a long shift and in a rush to get home and crash to bother w/ changing out of her scrubs. Then this whole rant was unsubstantiated. Wouldn’t be the first time. Seriously though, how hard is it to throw on some leggings and stow your pants in your bag until work? Newsflash: not hard at all.